A Year Following the Calgary Church Bombing
March 14th, 2027: A Year Following the Calgary Church Bombing - MacLeans Magazine On March 14, 2026 at approx 4:35am a large number of explosives that were planted at the Guardian Church's headquarters in downtown Calgary detonated, causing a massive explosion that killed 15 people, and injured a further 8. The blast damaged several surrounding buildings, which were demolished the following week, and caused a further half a million dollars in property damage. The perpetrators, a group known as the Guardian Deception Society, were tracked down in a matter of days and killed by local police in a flurry of raids in and around the city. The group's leader and founder, Vidal Desertch, was also killed in the raid and to this day there is nothing more than speculation as to the motives behind the attack due to a massive fire that destroyed their main headquarters after the founder's death. While there is still an ongoing internal investigation into the "excessive force" used by the police in the raids, these are the facts as we know them: THE WHO: The Guardian Deception Society (GDS) was founded in 2018 by failed computer game developer Vidal Desertch after his departure from and sale of Interdimensional Games for reasons unknown. IDGI made a handful of un-successful action/adventure games and was reported to have fallen apart from the inside due to a complete lack of focus and attention from Desertch, the driving force of the company. When asked about his brother's mysterious departure and relative disappearance from the public eye, Thrie Desertch, head writer, had this to say: "(Vidal) was extremely unreliable and would often disappear from production at random times and with no warning... sometimes before particularly critical milestones and then be gone for days at a time. His reasoning would always seem contrived to us." GDS was a radical departure for Vidal and up until that point had given no indication to even his closest friends/family that he held such an anti-Guardian Church stance, especially when it came to light that they were responsible for the terrorist strike. In its beginning years, GDS amounted to nothing more than staging peaceful "sit-ins" and protests speaking out against the Church and what they called its various ties to government personnel and influence on government policy, but were never taken very serious by the media or the Church itself. The radical departure from peaceful protests to bomb making terrorists caught everyone off guard, leaving the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) dumbfounded and with a lot to answer for regarding their tracking and monitoring of such organizations. Former Nova Scotia MP Malcolm Thomas had a field day speaking out against the inability of CSIS to properly track what to him was an obvious terrorist group waiting to strike. "The continuous and repeated protests by the GDS were clear indications that this was a group hell bent on terrorizing a religious institution for the sole purpose of furthering their own agenda. When no one would listen to them, or give them any credibility through their "peaceful tactics," they stepped up their delivery and turned to terror. CSIS should have been tracking this organization and have been ready to pounce at the slightest hint of a possible terrorist strike. Their failure is our tragedy." Thomas continued to call for heads at CSIS to roll, and by all accounts was successful as there was an internal investigation conducted, and in an unprecedented move, several high level officials were quietly offered early retirement packages and their replacements quickly moved into place. From that point on, CSIS has worked closely with the Church to root out and target other such groups that could pose a threat to the church. THE WHAT: How the group subverted the Church's security and planted the bombs is something the Church has not released any information on as it -as would be expected- was a major blight on what is normally a flawless security system. While the details of what happened leading up to the bombing are relatively unknown, there is speculation that the group had inside help from a disgruntled member of the church. "While we are not certain they had help, we have very strong indications from our post event investigation that they have assistance from the inside," said Michael Pheelps, spokesman for the Calgary branch of the Guardian Church the day after the attack. "While it is very unfortunate that we would suspect a member of our own church, it is the only real plausible scenario and one that we are moving forward with for the investigation." That investigation ended up with 12 people dead and the Calgary police to this day still under investigation for what happened. Two days after the bombing, Calgary police had determined that GDS was responsible for the strike and had tracked down the members responsible. In what many people are calling an extremely fast response in both determining those responsible and attempting to apprehend the suspects, the Calgary police made 5 simultaneous raids in and around the city killing all involved in what they called "defensive measures." "When we moved in on the suspects, we were met with a hail of gunfire and our officers had no choice but to return fire, which subsequently left all suspects involved dead on the scene." Many eyewitness reports contravene this report and claim that it was in fact the police who opened fire first, with there being little or no return fire from the suspects. Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) is still investigating the incident and have yet to make public their findings, but reports have been leaked over the past year which put into serious question the claims made by the Calgary police. "How did the Calgary police, who claim to have no previous knowledge about the terror capacities of GDS, identify and move in on the group in such a quick manner? Why were there no police casualties or even injuries if they were involved in a gun fight with the suspects?" asked Liberal MP Martin Hemlock who has led the call for a serious investigation into the actions of the Calgary police. "Combining the strikes with the razing of the GDS headquarters leaves myself, and others, to wonder what is behind the curtain here. What more to this story is there that we are not being told? The pieces just do not fit. The Calgary police force has a lot of questions to answer and so far have been very un-cooperative." THE AFTERMATH: While the Calgary police are still in hot water over the issue, public support for the Church has been higher than ever over the past twelve months. The incident has been greeted with a great outpouring of assistance from both the public and private sector. Membership in the Church has risen in huge numbers as people flock to their shores, wanting to help what people are calling the "innocent victim" in this terrible tragedy. "When I saw what happened, and listened to the Church speak about what happened, I was overwhelmed with their genuine forgiving nature when speaking about the terrorists", said new Church member Sandy Olivaria. "Any organization that could turn the other cheek after such a horrific and unprovoked attack was something I wanted to be a part of." GDS itself collapsed entirely after the incident, and any remaining members completely disappeared without a trace. They have, in all accounts, been completely written off as an extremist group whose founding member had serious personal issues with the Church. While it is unfortunate there is no surviving evidence regarding their motives and objectives, it is painfully obvious that Vidal Desertch was a disturbed man whose life -for whatever reason- had gone downhill and it would appear he blamed it on the Guardian Church. Of course there are many questions that will never be answered, but one thing is for certain. Canada was struck by a horrific terrorist strike one year ago, and it will live in infamy as the day our innocence died and we joined the ranks of countries around the world who have had to live through the pain and misery of terror striking at their core. Category:Vidal Desertch Category:Calgary, Canada Category:Guardian Deception Society Category:Law Enforcement Corruption